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Greetings and thanks for giving me this opportunity to ask you questions.

I am in central India, in the State of Andhra Pradesh. I want to grow lavender in one or two acres initially. What info do you need to give a satisfactory answer? I don’t know where lavender is grown in India and if you know anyone here in India, it would help a lot.

Lavender has proved to be a successful crop in diverse locations around the world. Besides the traditional areas of France and England, it is being grown in Canada, United States, Australia, New Zealand, Israel, China, among others. I am confident that lavender will also grow in northern India, particularly in the foothills, but I am not so sure it will succeed where the monsoon is heavy and the soil becomes saturated with water, which of course means much of central and southern India. Lavender cannot tolerate prolonged high humidity and high soil moisture conditions so if you can provide protection from those two limiting factors then you have a chance to grow lavender successfully.

I do not know of anyone in India growing lavender presently.

Once you have decided to proceed you need to secure appropriate planting material. Unfortunately the best lavender varieties are not grown from seeds -- they are propagated asexually from cuttings. This means you will likely need to import plants.